Development of safety performance indicators in Japan

In Japanese safety regulations to operating plant, the regulatory authorities utilize two types of measures. One is the direct regulation such as periodical inspection through which they inspect the electrical systems to verify that the function and performance of important safety related equipment conform to the approved construction plan and the technical standards, the other is audit type regulation such as preservation inspection through which they inspect the utilities to verify that plant operation conform to the safety preservation rules. NUPEC are studying a effective set of overall operational performance indicators for the audit type regulations in the frame of present safety control regulation system. We have classified various performances required by regulation, and developed the performance indicator framework. We have started the investigation of the evaluation methods and the judgment criteria. In this paper, I report the result of completed study and status of ongoing item. This report includes the investigation performed mainly last year and part of the investigation being performed this year mainly on the problems. This investigation will be continued next year, and after the completion of fundamental evaluation, the regulatory authorities will decide whether if / how the new set of overall performance indicators be introduced to Japanese regulatory scheme. (author)